Welding Tips and Tricks

hello board. I'm pretty new in the welding scene. I mean I work around it all day but never really touch it. I've decided to get into the trade and wold like a few tips on passing a 1g cwb test. I've been practicing on my own time and during my breaks for a few weeks now. the welders at work say it looks really smooth but it's not until I bend it at the hall that I notice hair line cracks on my plate. at first it was on my square edge and my beveled edge. I recently changed my rod angle to 60 degrees so I can concentrare on the backing strip(welders advive) and it fixed the square side. but still have issues on the beveled side (hair line crack). Sorry if this has been asked before. I looked all over and didn't see anything regarding my issue. any advice would be appreciated. I'm from Canada and have a test July 29 using 7018 1/8 rod. I'll just be able to practice this week with no bend test as my hall is closed. (any advice on how to bend plates at home would be appreciated also lol.) I should of took pics as you guys would see. but I'm sure you experienced welders understand what I'm talking about.

thanks again
chris

I have unlimited certs in stick are you running stringers or weaving. On test I run stringers and all most no weaving. A northern thing is to have the amps set wright.the most important pass is the root you need to burn that in good.as the rest gets hot they will fuse.

Turn the amps up a bit and make sure you're not leaving slag in the toes or any spots where you have to hope it'll fuse. Should be good.

hi thanks for the replies guys. I was able to get my 2 position cwb on test day. it was nerve racking as I don't have much expwrience. in all it was pretty good fusion. a couple little nicKS but nothing to bad.

So just a little thought from a new member/welder. I understand that turning the amps up as hot as I could handle should if fix my issue. so that's what I did the last few days pryor to my test with no results. I got there 1 hour early on test day so I could talk to others. just so happens I met a welding inspector who was there doing his 4 plates. I asked him and he says it was probably mill scale causing it. well I never thought about this and nobody ever really mention that to me. so I wire brush the shit out of my 2 plates and they passed. I also turned it up to 140 amps for my root passes. (I had done that before but always had that hair line crack)

any thoughts guys? again thanks for the reply.

Chris

I must've overlooked asking if you have cleaned the millscale off. The thought behind turning the amps up is that it'll burn through easier. Although when it come down to it the safer bet is grinding it clean.